Hair stylist tried Medieval hair care for a month

[TatsuOni]

I'd never heard of SnappyDragon before I run into this video a few days ago.


https://youtu.be/1JZ33WuzPHI

I actually think that it was a good video! And that medieval routine, is very close to my own hair care routine, including scarves :p

[elfgirl]

Love this!!! Has inspired me to try stretching washes again ^_^

[Shorty89]

I've been meaning to post this! It's such a cool video. I only have a cheap, crappy plastic fine toothed comb but I'm tempted to buy something similar to what she has and try it. I don't know if I'll go a month but I'm sure it will help me with my weekly washes.

[Joules]

Ok, I got horrible flashbacks to the painful scalp era of my life and had to sniff a lovely minty bottle of head&shoulders for 30 minutes straight to calm down :laugh:

Great video, just you guys remember that stretching washes isn't for everyone, and for some it's straight up harmful!

[Hellebore]

This was super interesting, thank you for sharing!

What I got out of this video is that I need to comb my hair more. I very rarely comb my hair, but seeing all the lint and gunk she got out of her hair after combing was...inspiring.

[Kerrtu-Kevät]

Ok, I got horrible flashbacks to the painful scalp era of my life and had to sniff a lovely minty bottle of head&shoulders for 30 minutes straight to calm down :laugh:

Great video, just you guys remember that stretching washes isn't for everyone, and for some it's straight up harmful!

Seconded! I really wish I could wash weekly or even monthly but I would literally have half my hair density because it stretching causes my scalp to revolt.

[TatsuOni]

My hair and scalp hated me so much when I washed more frequently, so it's definitely idividually!

But I use a medium toothed comb to detangle and then remove dirt and spread my sebum with a BBB :) So that works too!

[alewyn]

Really interesting video! I wonder if a fine-toothed comb would help me with my lint problem. I've always avoided them because I've been concerned they'll cause extra breakage, but honestly, I probably have way more breakage from trying to detangle lint-based tangles all the time.

[Gwendolynn]

I saw this video too the other day! Very interesting! As someone who does not wash, it is really cool to see more people online trying out different things and finding ways to figure out what works for their hair.

[Bri-Chan]

Interesting video! I didn't know her, so thanks for sharing even more.
It's interesting! Streaching washes over a certain point isn't for me. Not for the scalp itself, but for the hair. Being fine and not that thick, it looks oily realtively soon. Also, with tangle prone hair like mine, that comb scares me.
But, I really like the scarf idea.

[Shug]

I can’t stretch my washes longer than a week otherwise my scalp gets scabby and pimply and gross. The comb intrigued me though. Considering buying a fine tooth to run through my hair after detangling with a wide tooth. I wonder if I would see any build up like she did.

[Shorty89]

I'm liking combing through sections with a fine toothed comb. I think it really gets rid of some gunk. My only problem is that my fine comb is plastic so it generates a lot of static! If I want to continue this, I'll have to buy a wooden one.

[ArienEllariel]

Ooh I recently saw this video and it was truly fascinating! I don't think I could stretch washes that much simply because my scalp tends to be much more oily than hers does. If I wait too long between washes I will start having issues and needing more medicated shampoo. But every 2-3 days seems perfectly okay. If my scalp was more normal to dry, I'd definitely try this method out. Super neat!

[Shorty89]

I'm seriously tempted to buy this comb after watching the video for the second time. I know it's not identical to the one she has but it's more affordable for a Canadian. https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/979726213/medieval-rus-novgorod-wooden-comb?ref=cart

Then, I saw this one which is just adorable. Not as fine-toothed but sooo cute.
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/943465917/rabbit-shape-wood-comb-retro-rosewood?click_key=c51124f7a67dd59b48da0372b355491 cd5c216c2%3A943465917&click_sum=72e2d626&ref=hp_opfy-5

[Hellebore]

I ended up buying the comb she uses from Rigr Crafts, and I absolutely love it! It is far superior to my old wooden comb, and will probably be my go-to detangling comb.

Prior to watching this video I didn't really use combs or brush my hair much after detangling because my hair is so fragile, but I had absolutely no issues with this comb and I'm not sure why. But I didn't hear any strands snap, and when I used the fine-toothed side I definitely pulled a lot of gunk out!

[Mariekeeee14]

Very interesting, I've been eyeing two sided combs since watching this video. I've never had wooden combs with teeth so fine, so that's another experiment wrapped in that experiment.

[emilyogini]

"Shmutz" :D

[TatsuOni]

I just couldn't resist after all this talk about fine toothed combs, so I ordered one too (from a Swedish site) to test it :p

[alewyn]

I just got the fine toothed wooden comb I ordered in the mail today and HOLY WOW was there a lot of lint in my hair. It just kept coming! I was stunned.

I really love the comb! I didn't noticed any breakage or harshness from the finer teeth, and it distributed my sebum really efficiently. Plus, after detangling so thoroughly and getting all the lint out, my hair didn't tangle back up nearly as bad. I even got my hair wet today, which usually results in a lot of tangles, but nope--beautiful, perfect 2c loose spirally waves after it air dried, and less frizz/tangles than normal. It's a shame there was no good natural light today, or I would have taken a pic before putting it up.

I will definitely be using it at least every few days. Lint causes almost all of my tangles, so this is a game changer for me.

[Catty]

I saw this video a while ago and it led me to research WO and NW/SO again - which I halfheartedly tried a couple years ago, but it didn't work out for me because the BBB and my curly hair seemingly are not friends at all. After years of absence I figured let's check the longhair community again and funnily enough you're discussing the very video that led me back here!

Anyway I had resigned myself to weekly washes and frizzy hair and a slightly irritated scalp and then this lady with the same hair type as me comes along combing out her dry hair with a fricken fine toothed comb! Something I didn't even think was possible with curly hair. I'm still quite skeptical if daily manipulation with a comb leads to less hair loss than washing it once a week and pretty much leaving it alone the rest of the time (I used to only detangle in the shower with conditioner. No brushing between washes). But I'm theorizing that maybe if I can get my scalp to be healthier I can grow out my hair stronger and less prone to breakage. And I do like the idea of no longer wasting money on products that aren't working for me either way. Not sure if I will try full on NW/SO, as I do have to wet my hair if I want to wear it curly. I think at first I'm going to try just stretch out the time between washes and possibly try WO washes and see how it goes.

So far I haven't washed my hair in like 10 days, which isn't too abnormal for me so it's not overly greasy yet. I don't have a wooden comb yet (but I'm going to order one), so what I did so far was just some massaging of the scalp, brushing my hair out daily with a regular paddle brush and yesterday I combed it with a metal flea comb. I heard some snapping sounds that I did not like so I won't be trying this again, but the amount of lint on the comb was wild. Overall my scalp is doing better than normal so this seems promising.

[TatsuOni]

I just couldn't resist after all this talk about fine toothed combs, so I ordered one too (from a Swedish site) to test it :p

It was so bad in quality, that I'm getting my money back! I've ordered another from Etsy.

[Shorty89]

It was so bad in quality, that I'm getting my money back! I've ordered another from Etsy.

Oh no! That's too bad.

[alewyn]

It was so bad in quality, that I'm getting my money back! I've ordered another from Etsy.

What a shame! Hopefully the new one is better.



I've been using the fine-toothed comb every morning before I put my hair up. I wasn't originally planning to use it so frequently, but it feels really nice on my scalp, and now that I've used it a few times to get lint out of my hair, I have way fewer tangles and it takes less time to comb. I am still getting tons of lint out of my hair, though! A crazy amount. I haven't noticed any scalp irritation, extra breakage, or excess shedding, either.

[Catty]

It was so bad in quality, that I'm getting my money back! I've ordered another from Etsy.

I was wondering if I should ask where you got yours since I also live in Sweden, but now I'm glad I didn't!

I ordered 2 different ones from Amazon though. They're both the same shape as the one she uses in the video, but one is sandalwood and the other one is pear wood. Crossing my thumbs that at least one of them will be decent quality.

[baanoo]

I finally watched this and now I, too, want one of those super fine-toothed combs...

[Shug]

The fine tooth comb I ordered is crappy quality too, SAD. :cry:

[Shorty89]

I ended up just buying a couple fairly cheap but seamless fine toothed plastic combs and I'll be ordering a fairly normal wooden comb too. I hope someone finds a good quality one.

[Lady Stardust]

I wondered what the quality of the fine tooth combs would be like because the ones I have seen are surprisingly cheap. I already have a fine tooth tail comb (which I use for taming and trimming my fringe), but it isn’t as fine as the double sided version, which looks like a nit comb.

I don’t intend to stretch washes, but I think careful use of a fine tooth comb could be useful to keep lint at bay. I also like the point she makes towards the end of the video, that there are times when washing your hair isn’t possible, and this could be a solution.

My comb doesn’t give me static by the way, it’s by Denman. Or rather, it isn’t giving me static at the moment, maybe it’s the right time of year!

[paulownia]

Interesting but definitely not for me!:D
On the 3 day without shampoo my scalp is itching like being invaded by thousands of demon-fleas:rollin:

[alewyn]

For all those having trouble finding a quality comb, this (https://www.etsy.com/listing/768635957/dual-action-100-natural-green-sandalwood?ref=yr_purchases) is the one I got, and it's definitely not cheap, but it is really lovely! Quite sturdy, and it has very, very fine teeth--even the wider toothed side is quite fine compared to what I'm used to, so I still detangle with a properly wide-toothed comb before starting with this one. It also has that nice sandalwood smell, which is a bonus.

[Shorty89]

For all those having trouble finding a quality comb, this (https://www.etsy.com/listing/768635957/dual-action-100-natural-green-sandalwood?ref=yr_purchases) is the one I got, and it's definitely not cheap, but it is really lovely! Quite sturdy, and it has very, very fine teeth--even the wider toothed side is quite fine compared to what I'm used to, so I still detangle with a properly wide-toothed comb before starting with this one. It also has that nice sandalwood smell, which is a bonus.

The base price isn't bad but $33 for shipping to Canada! :scared:

[Lanina]

I tried the combing part for a while, but I didn't cover my hair. I tried a sandalwood double-sided comb and a seamless hard rubber Hercules Sägemann comb, both fine-tooth. It certainly cleans your hair of lint and distributes oil well. I think my wooden comb was marketed as a beard comb, it wasn't expensive. I liked the rubber comb best, it was easiest to keep clean and seemed even more gentle than the wood. Unfortunately, combing seems like it was drying to my lengths, even with the oil distribution. My hair is really dry to begin with though, so take that for what it's worth. It seemed a lot more gentle than using a boar bristle brush.

[Catty]

I got this sandalwood com: Amazon Sweden link (https://www.amazon.se/Eberbart-sk%C3%A4ggkam-antistatisk-naturligt-sandeltr%C3%A4/dp/B01ID3PN0C/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1L6B7CNUSJZBY&keywords=eberbart+comb&qid=1654522074&sprefix=eberbart+comb%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1). I think it's only available in Europe though. I didn't expect much because of the low price but it has a very pleasant floral/woody smell and does a good job at detangling and combing out lint gently. When it arrived it had some weird tiny crystals growing out of it, but I just rinsed it with water, scrubbed it with a toothbrush and gave it a quick cool blow dry.

I also got this pear wood comb (https://www.amazon.se/gp/product/B0775R9TT3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) with the same order, but I haven't tried it much because I prefer the sandalwood comb. The pear wood comb is lighter in comparison and it also seems to have some sort of shiny coating. It doesn't have a nice smell either. When I pull it through my hair it seems to glide more easily, but also gives me more static. Not sure if it's good at all at spreading oils.

I've been combing out and braiding my hair twice a day with the sandalwood comb for a week now and unless I'm clumsy and twist the comb wrong or pull on a knot accidentally I don't seem to have any breakage (just regular shed hairs with the roots). My lengths and ends are doing just fine. I will say that after I last washed my hair (about 2 weeks ago) I put some shea moisture leave-in conditioner in my lengths and ends, so I'm not sure if that is still doing its thing or if I've managed to spread the sebum all the way down, but my ends feel soft and nice. If I can keep my scalp from itching I will keep going and see what happens.

[Pouncequick]

Interesting but definitely not for me!:D
On the 3 day without shampoo my scalp is itching like being invaded by thousands of demon-fleas:rollin:

I have the same issue (on day 4), but I got a comb like this anyways. Mostly just to detangle my hair and massage my scalp. It helps a ton with the pathological itching and makes it so that I don't have an angry, achy, itchy scalp even if I miss my normal wash time by a bit (which I still try not to do because the comb is not magic, lol). Also it helps a ton with keeping lint out of my hair and the resulting tangles down. I won't be using it to stretch my washes or anything but it is pretty nice. I also ended up getting some nice scarves to keep my hair from touching me on highly sensitive days or when I need to focus. It's awesome even though it isn't very useful as a scalp cleansing alternative for me and my hair feels a bit softer from staying less tangled. The comb doesn't seem to hurt my hair either which is what I was most concerned about.

[Catty]

About the itchy scalp thing:

I used to get an itchy, sore scalp couple days after washing (pretty much the only reason I would wash my hair in the first place as it would never get greasy). The wooden comb hardly helped with the itch either, no matter how much I tried scraping my scalp with it. What actually did help was getting the Denman d6 massage brush after I read about it in the nw/so thread, I believe. I've been brushing the crap out of my scalp with it once or twice a day. I've been doing it for like a week now and my scalp stopped being itchy almost immediately and I don't seem to be getting sores and ingrown hair on my scalp anymore. Haven't washed my hair 3 weeks+ now and my boyfriend hasn't complained about a smell or the way it looks yet so I think I'll just keep going and see what happens.

[spidermom]

Ok, I got horrible flashbacks to the painful scalp era of my life and had to sniff a lovely minty bottle of head&shoulders for 30 minutes straight to calm down :laugh:

Great video, just you guys remember that stretching washes isn't for everyone, and for some it's straight up harmful!

I think it was for me. My daughter was applying color to my hair in back a few weeks ago, and she came across a weeping cyst on the back of my head. Now I'm so paranoid about leaving my scalp to marinate in its own juices for too long that I'm washing my scalp/hair every other day, even every day if I've been working hard in dirty conditions and sweating. I'm much happier with the way my hair looks and feels than I was when I washed it about every 5 days with the goal of making it a whole week. No way!

[Shorty89]

So, I've been using a fine toothed plastic comb on my hair after going through it with my wooden one and it picks up a lot of gunk. But, I'm having a hard time getting that gunk out of the plastic comb. The tines are so close together that scrubbing it with a toothbrush doesn't seem to get them all easily. Any ideas?

[Lady Stardust]

So, I've been using a fine toothed plastic comb on my hair after going through it with my wooden one and it picks up a lot of gunk. But, I'm having a hard time getting that gunk out of the plastic comb. The tines are so close together that scrubbing it with a toothbrush doesn't seem to get them all easily. Any ideas?

The only thing I can think of is denture cleaning tablets :) I used to work in an office where they used those on coffee cups once a week to remove staining. With a comb it’s possible the fizz would bubble up between the tines?

[Ashtaroth]

So, I've been using a fine toothed plastic comb on my hair after going through it with my wooden one and it picks up a lot of gunk. But, I'm having a hard time getting that gunk out of the plastic comb. The tines are so close together that scrubbing it with a toothbrush doesn't seem to get them all easily. Any ideas?

I use a very fine toothed nail brush. It’s the only thing I’ve found for degunking my combs. In Canada Lee Valley Tools sells them as “the world’s kindest nail brush”

[Shorty89]

I use a very fine toothed nail brush. It’s the only thing I’ve found for degunking my combs. In Canada Lee Valley Tools sells them as “the world’s kindest nail brush”

I'll check that out. I had some luck soaking it in oil first and then washing it.